Polish writer and novelist who was awarded
the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1924.
Reymont never completed his schooling but was at various times in his youth
a shop apprentice, a lay brother in a monastery, a railway official, and
an actor. His early writing includes Ziemia obiecana (1899; "The Promised
Land"), a story set in the rapidly expanding industrial town of Lodz
and depicting the lives and psychology of the owners of the textile mills
there. His short stories and novels, including Spotkanie (1897; "The
Meeting") and Komediantka (1896; "The Comedienne"), are written
in a naturalistic, factual style with short sentences. The novel Chlopi,
4 vol. (1904-09; The Peasants) is a chronicle of peasant life during the four
seasons of a year. Written almost entirely in peasant dialect, it has been
translated into many languages and won for Reymont the Nobel Prize. His
later work was less expressive but reflected the variety of his interests,
including his view of the spiritualist movement in Wampir (1911) and his
interpretation of Polish political and social life at the close of the 18th
century in Rok 1794, 3 vol. (1913-18; "The Year 1794").